Ken Catchpole, Australian rugby player – obituary

Ken Catchpole posing with a sculpture of himself at Sydney Football Stadium in 2010Credit:
Getty Images/ AsiaPac

31 January 2018 • 4:54pm

Ken Catchpole, who has died aged 78, was one of the greatest Australian rugby players and is rated, along with Gareth Edwards of Wales, as the most talented scrum-half of all time.

He played 67 times for the Wallabies, 27 in Tests and 13 as captain, before his international career was ended at the age of 28 by one of the most horrific injuries ever seen on a rugby field. “Catchy,” as he was known, was targeted by the All Blacks as the player they most feared.

At Sydney in 1968 both his legs were trapped under a maul and, as he lay there defenceless, the giant All Blacks forward, Colin “Pine Tree” Meads, yanked one of them out and twisted it with all his might, tearing his hamstring from the pelvic bone and damaging his groin muscles and sciatic nerve.

Meads wrote afterwards: “The referee did not penalise me, but in the eyes of the Australians I was just a dirty big bastard. All Australians...